Snow Day

Sometimes I really miss winter.  I do remember those days when it was so cold walking around NY that I felt like my ears would fall off, but I also remember that feeling you get when the snow first starts falling and everything is covered in a beautiful white blanket. This would also make me even more excited when it would happen around Christmas and the Christmas lights would make it all the more beautiful. I wish I could see the boys faces as they played in the snow.  Adam loves reading about snowmen and snow and winter.  I wonder what he would do in actual snow. And Malcolm was in the sandbox this weekend for the first time and he was so excited. 

  Here is Adam before and during the one and only snowstorm we experienced. Thank you Detroit and Ley family 🙂  Oh baby winter clothes, is there anything cuter! How I miss you!  Ok this hodgepodge outfit may not be the best but Adam was still cute in it.

Last weekend Typhoon Ruby came to the Philippines.  Typhoon days remind me of snow days.  This is mostly because we’re in a very safe area where little flooding happens and our building has a generator so we are very very lucky to not have as much fear as many people when a typhoon is near. Typhoon Ruby was a total dud in Manila and thankfully there was hardly even any rain, but we got a Typhoon day none the less. The Embassy was closed on Monday and we mostly stayed in the house just in case wind and rain picked up.  
What to do with two little one in the house all day you ask?  Well, blocks amused us for quite a while. It’s amazing how many times a toddler can build and know down a tower. And how many times Malcolm can try to crawl over to knock over same tower instead of the one I built him.  I kept reminding Adam about No Fits Nilson (inside child book joke) but he didnt’ seem to get the irony.
The scene of the crime 
Biding his time, waiting to make his move. 
Meanwhile unsuspecting building proceeds.

Construction is successful

Malcolm goes in for the kill.

The last minute full body block.

Success!  Followed by Adam knocking over his tower two seconds later.

Moving on, wardrobe change (can’t remember why but assuming watermelon, yogurt, egg, fill in the blank,
 ended up on our shirt) or mommy was trying to pretend it’s winter and long sleeves were necessary. 
We were tasked to make winter ornaments for Adam’s Holiday Party at school. So we set about gluing on some cotton balls to make a snow wreath. 

Someone really loves arts and crafts! And was also given a sweater for our fake snowstorm.

We made these for our Christmas tree using the boys thumbrpints.  Super cute.  And I love that it’s their thumbprints that make the reindeer face.  Growing up my mom always had ornaments that we had made when we were younger and I loved putting them on the tree.  I can’t wait until the boys are older and excited to hang their ornaments. We’re also lucky that Grandma Gertch sends them ornaments with their names on them every year so the boys have a growing collection. 

Then to take it up a notch and because we started getting a little stir crazy we pulled out the reindeer ears.  Adam didn’t last long but we managed to get a couple pictures of Malcolm before he tore his off. 

Then a mini dance party and snow day officially came to an end. 

Happy Birthday Adam Malek Ali!

As usual birthdays over here at the Ali house last at lease a week.  The celebration for Adam’s birthday started December 5th with a pre-birthday cupcake. Nothing like the smiles that come when sugar is given!  

Then it was bedtime and time to get Adam’s presents ready!  I dread this time usually, after the boys are asleep and all the presents must be assembled…why oh why can’t children’s toys just come pre-assembled!! Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj had sent an awesome bike for Adam and I was a little nervous but it ended up being super easy to put together.  It didn’t even take half a Grey’s Anatomy.

December 6th came all too soon and was an amazing day.  We took lots and lots of pictures (this is a warning because they’re all below)! And just like that our little boy was three.  He is such a special, smart, funny, wonderful little boy and we are so lucky for every day that we get to spend with him. Even the tantrum full ones.  Luckily this one was tantrum free and full of smiles! 

The next morning started with presents from Maria and Michelle who are so thoughtful and always get Adam such sweet gifts.

Where are my presents 🙂

Then it was on to this! 

A giant shark from Malcolm!

Candy and cookies!
A horse sticker book that was a big success!!
I wasn’t sure if Adam would like this book. I read that it is a sweet book for older siblings.  It focuses on all the things that older siblings do first.  Adam loves it! His face lights up every time I read about all the things he did first.  I would definitely recommend this book!

The star of the show was this! Thanks Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj! Adam loves his new bike and is so great on it.

Later in the day we gave Adam his last present from us.  Randy picked it out and Adam loved it, it was a dragon!  This was for sure Malcolm’s favorite! He was too cute and trying so hard to get a peek in. 

Malcolm did get to play with the box….how many more days until your birthday Malcolm?

No dragon and I need to eat string beans? This is definitely NOT my birthday.

Adam just fed most of his string beans to his dragon.  We did make him a special dinner for his birthday and didn’t just make him eat string beans!

 
Then it was time for the cake!

 

No cake either…Really people, when is it MY BIRTHDAY!! 

 Every night before bed we sing Happy Birthday to Adam.  He insists we sing Happy Birthday to Adam Malek Ali  (so the other Adams in the house don’t think it’s their birthday).  It was pretty special this night to sing Happy Birthday since it’s the one night of the 365 where it’s actually his birthday. 

Oh Christmas Tree!

This last Tuesday was one of my favorite day of the year, Christmas tree day! Guess who else was super excited! I’ve always loved Christmas but I love it even more experiencing it with Malcolm and Adam. This Christmas is Adam’s fourth and Malcolm’s first.  Both boys were super excited about the tree, especially this little guy.   

Tied in excitement was this guy.  Adam couldn’t wait to put the lights and the ‘otaments’ on the tree! 

‘Helping’ mommy untangle the lights. 

I always love taking the ornaments out and talking about where we got them all.  This year for every ornament Adam asked about them (mostly to ask if they were ‘mine’).  For some we got to tell him they were his and for others we got to tell them they were from before he was even a twinkle in our eye. 

     

 

 

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My two boys

The older Malcolm gets the more wonderful it is watching my two boys together.  Adam is still learning how to play with Malcolm and how to share but every once in a while there are those perfect moments where I don’t need to remind him to share or be gentle and I can catch glimpses more and more of these two getting older and playing together.  
Malcolm has now started copying EVERYTHING Adam does. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Poor little Malcolm crawls as fast as he can after Adam trying to keep up.  It breaks my heart sometimes but it shouldn’t because Malcolm doesn’t even care if he catches him.  He’s happy just to follow behind and just being his little brother.  
Adam meanwhile was talking about all of the presents Santa is going to bring him.  When we asked if Santa was going to bring Malcolm a present he graciously said yes..followed by some thought and then Adam said- Santa is going to bring Malcolm a tiny present because he is a little baby.  When talking about his cake for his birthday we asked Adam is Malcolm would get a piece too.  He again graciously replied yes, then after a minute, yup you guessed it, Malcolm can have a tiny little piece because he is a baby.  At least you get something Malcolm! 

ThrowbackThanksgiving Turkey

It seems like we were just celebrating Thanksgiving last year with Malcolm in my belly with our friends Simone, Carrie and Frederick.

Here we are last Thanksgiving with our friends Jenny and Vivian.  Malcolm and Penelope were in our bellies! 
And here we are this Thanksgiving!
I can’t believe it’s already Malcolm’s first Thanksgiving!  

The boys were still visiting for Thanksgiving so we decided to have a big dinner. Then, we decided since we already have 5 adults and 2 children we might as well host 14 adults and 9 children. After all, that would mean less leftovers.  What I didn’t realize was that Randy and the boys flight back from Thailand didn’t get in until after 1 pm.  That meant that I was in charge of the Turkey (and the stuffing, mashed potatoes, rice and more).  In all the years that we’ve hosted Thanksgiving (8!) I’ve never made the turkey! It was always Randy’s job (as well as the stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and more).  With a lot of help from my mom and Martha Stewart’s brining recipe the turkey was a huge success as well as all the other food. 

My first turkey!

The holidays are always bittersweet.  Being so far away from our families is the hardest around this time but having such amazing friends, that we love, who spend the holidays with us makes them a whole lot easier.   

The Boys

Our three friends from LA, affectionately called the boys, aka the LA boys, aka Puraj, Zeb and Brook came to visit us last week.

We first traveled with these guys almost ten years ago. We went to Mykonos and Santorini together and had the best time.

They came to visit us in London before coming to our wedding in Greece.  It’s pretty amazing to have friends that will travel so far to see you.

Adam was OBSESSED wtih these three! He couldn’t get enough, he even cried when they left.  It was pretty sweet. He already knows who the cool kids are.

We are so lucky to have friends who travel so far to see us and spend time with us.  Randy even got to sneak in a boys trip to Thailand.  I have yet to see pictures of their time in Thailand so I’m not entirely sure what happened out there but as for the boys time in Manila we had a great time and miss them already!

I managed to get one nice picture in before these four devolved to this…

and here is what happens when you try to take a picture of these four and throw in a baby and a toddler. 

All the boys 🙂

Here are Zebs top three: 
1) Midget boxing 

2) Eating street food: Chicken intestine, Pig intestine, Pork blood, Pig ear3) Chupacabra tacos. We’re from Cali….birthplace of the taco….and we all thought thry were damn good tacos. I’d say the Sisig and Adobo were two of my favorites.

Dear Daddy

You may be wondering what Malcolm and I did for 5 days without you?  
Well, mommy took us on lots of walks.  As she always says, “Is there anything better than havingmy two boys contained and happy! I think not!”  
I may not look happy here, but I am, this is actually my ‘I am waiting for my chocoloate croissant’ face, ‘lets speed things up mommy’. 

Mommy took me to my favorite spot in Manila for the umpteenth time.  Even though we had to fight this traffic to get there and mommy thought about turning back a coupe times the aquarium is always worth it! Thanks mommy 🙂

I got to see my old friend, Mr Crocodile.

And my all time favorite, the sharks.  Extra bonus, I got there just in time to see feeding time. 

And of course I had to drive the Jeepney a bit on our way out.  

We spent lots of time by the pool, both inside and outside playing.

Malcolm was invited too.

We all spent lots of time cuddling.

And Malcolm continued his campaign to chew on any inappropriate items he can get his hands on.

We made cookies! Mommy even ‘let’ me lick the sugar out of the measuring cups. 

I let Malcolm play with all my toys…when he could catch me.

We sang and played music.  New songs in the repetoire include Twinkle Twinkle sung at top volume and Jingle Bells. 

We miss you daddy!!

Love Adam 

Drivers License

Malcolm LOVES his big brother.  The only thing he loves more than Adam are his toys!  When Adam is out of the house Malcolm gets into everything.  He finally got to borrow Adam’s car this past weekend and I have never seemed this little pumpkin happier.  Oh Adam, we’re going to need to get you a bigger car so you can start giving your brother a ride. 

In the office

Adam came by our office last week after school.  He was so adorable! He went up to everyone and shook their hand and said My name is Adam, I’m almost three. He wasn’t shy at all.  He is such an amazing, confident, sweet little boy.

One of Randy’s colleague put on a hat and introduced himself as Cowboy Dan.  Adam loved it and wanted to talk to him about his favorite thing, horses!  When asked what he wanted for Christmas his answer was a horse (news to us).  When Cowboy Dan tried to thwart his plan and asked Adam where his horse would live his reply was in his Big Red Barn.  When asked what his horse would be named, Adam replied Al Capone.

  

Is there room in that barn?

 

A couple more Adam classics.

After watching Jungle Book a couple months ago Adam has now become a firm enemy of all monkeys everywhere.  Monkeys have remained on his mind ever since.

‘Mommy where is my green car? Maybe toria took it?’ (Victoria had wanted said green car a couple weeks back when we were giving her a ride to school) ‘Or maybe I fed it to a monkey?’

We were looking at the globe and Adam asked where Grandma Lerch and Grandma Yuyu live, then he asked where Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj live, then he asked where Roman lives and then he asked where the monkeys live.

I love seeing what goes on in his little brain.